Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Bonnaroo Mumford and Sons at Bonnaroo's Which Stage, 6/11/11
Posted by Adam Gold on Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 10:07 AM
Before Bonnaroo I felt like I was perhaps the only person in the world to, at this point, not have an opinion on Mumford and Sons (translation: Momford and Sons). In the past year or so, the English indie folkies have broken America something fierce with their earnest fetishization of American bluegrass and folk rock — resulting in a sound that's far more Joshua Tree than it is Music From Big Pink.
Since I know little beyond that of this band — this band that is so igniting passions worldwide — I figured I'd check them out while they're still at the peak of their break, and see what the big fuckin' deal is. And, by the looks of the enormous crowd that had already overwhelmed the Which Stage area late Saturday afternoon, it was obvious what a big fuckin' deal they are. Even the backstage viewing areas were without decent sight lines, so I sucked it up and moseyed into the far reaches of the mass to take in what I could of the show, which, from that vantage point, felt like some fuckin' Glastonbury shit.
I probably would've been better off checking this band out when the opportunity to do so at The Station Inn, or when that Nashville house show presented itself earlier this year, but really, music that relies on an audience clapping along to quarter notes — as the Mumfords' seems to — is best heard in the midst of thousands of people doing exactly that. (Note: This year's Bonnaroo audience was shit when it came to keeping time, BTW. Lots of dragging. And hard dragging. Like, sometimes after as few as four bars.)
Truth be told, during Mumfords' set I was really more enamored by watching the crowd. Onstage were a couple of pasty Brits with mandolins, double basses, and other stringed cheese grinders — got it. It's the crowd that really gave weight to the anthemic, well written but ultimately pedantic plainsongs that the band were so passionately — and pastily — harmonizing over onstage. Really, it's the crowd that defines every performance at Bonnaroo, isn't it? In this case it was a mass outbreak of teary-eyed sing-alongs, rampant PDA displays, and an uncomfortable number of shirtless dudes closing eyes and outstretching their arms to the sky as if they were Tim Robbins after climbing out of a prison sewage pipe.
The kind of fevered reaction Mumford and Sons were getting explains precisely why people are developing a knee-jerk dismissal for this band before they've ever really heard them. It's become a thing of, "Do we root for or against this band? Are they a by-way-of-Britain Americana boy band? Or are they a legit, treasure trove of roots-y transcendence, with musical depth and insights well beyond their years?"
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Mumford and Sons are the Americana boom's answer to Coldplay — they're trying to see what a pickin' party would sound like at Wembley Stadium. They should neither offend fans of actual roots music nor ignite the ecclesiastical fervor of zealous minions who've just seen the Virgin Mary's face reflected off a Dobro, but rather just be.
Like Coldplay, they might cause you to roll an eye or two — as they did with a sanctimonious encore of "Amazing Grace," complete with a "Hey everybody, ready to get a little spiritual?" intro — but when they have a moment that really connects with and uplifts the crowd (as they seemed to with a late-in-set "Lover of the Light"), who are singing to words they can actually make sense of and relate to, it's clear they have some songs and some star power their contemporaries might not.
Mumford and Sons aren't that big a fuckin' deal, they're just a big band. And that's fine. Also fine: They brought out Nashville session legend Jerry Douglas to join them on a couple songs.
Comments (6)
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Keeping time is a bitch when you're partially straddling two planes of existence and communing with Zandor, the Neptunian Voivode of the Twinkie-sphere...
Also, why never any Mary sightings on drum heads? Who knew she was a bluegrass fan, eh? Amirite?
Ahem...
I like "Little Lion Man." Good tune.
No, burrito. I know I've said it before, but he looks like Ken Marino. Like, A LOT.
http://www.thecinemasource.com/moviesdb/im…
You know it wasn't actually a member of Mumford & Sons that said the "Ready to get a little spiritual?" line, right? I believe it was an Old Crow. Not that it makes a huge difference. But I do think it's worth pointing out as, despite a lot of their lyrics being faith-related, Mumford & Sons aren't a Christian rock band nor do they use their stage to push Christian agendas.
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